Lesser of 2 evils - hatching in incubator with no viewing window or...

[ourblessednest]

moving to the homemade styrofoam bator?

We are incubating in a renovated holding cabinet that is doing a beautiful job. My only dislike is that we didn't have time to retrofit the door to where it has a window. SO...for this batch I can either take my chances and try not to disturb the hatch as much as possible or make a styrofoam bator like Miss Prissy's and try and hatch in there so I can see what is going on. I so want to watch them hatch

, esp if one struggles and needs help.

Any opinions/advice/experience?

For what it's worth, temp and humidity drop VERY little even with opening the door for a less than a minute, and stabalize quickly. If I peek in even for a minute, temp maybe drops 1-2 degrees and humidity from 50%ish to 40% or so, then within 5-10 minutes we're back up. It's not like I couldn't check on them at all, just not as much as I would like. Would I NEED to see them more often than daily?

I started making the styrofoam bator before DH brought this one in, so I could finish that one. Would that be better so I could see them?

Thanks!

 

[Riocotesei]

You could put a web cam in there or something to that effect. I think that you should make a styrobator also cause you're going to want it anyways

So, I think you should do both. lol

 

[ourblessednest]

OOOHHH - I didn't even think of a web cam! That would be awesome.

And yes,

... I'm already putting together the styrofoam incubator. I am unsure of my technical ability, luckily DH is handy! Just something about 'making it yourself', you know? Lol! This is so addictive.

Thanks for the response!

 

[needmorechickens!]

You can build the styrofoam one, trust me. If you need help, BYC is just a click away!
(Not that we are enabling you or anything!)

~Rebecca

 

[ozzie]

What about one of those peep hole things that you have on doors to look at who's on the other side? It may be a good thing that it's closed up because I find that the big viewing window just makes for lots of 'watching time'

aka time wasted just looking and looking and looking - maybe you'd be less inclined to keep 'willing' them to hatch NOW! 21 days is a LONG time when you're hatching

ozzie

 

[shelleyd2008]

Quote:
Isn't that the truth!!! Good thing mine have hatched 2 days early so far!!